The following is a summary of the main items discussed at a meeting between representatives from various bodies, including SAICA, the CSIG, and the Acting Registrar of Companies and senior CIPRO staff on 21 July 2005.
1. CIPRO website speed and access
Practitioners raised serious concerns about the very slow access to CIPRO's website. This has had a significant negative impact on practitioners' ability to lodge annual returns for public and private companies and to make use of the electronic lodgement of certain forms.
It was noted that CIPRO acknowledged the problems that were being experienced and this is why they had agreed to an effective extension of the due date for lodging annual returns for private companies incorporated in May and June.
CIPRO's head of information technology stated that the reason for the slow speed of their website was because all internet traffic had to be routed via the DTI and SITA before reaching the service provider UUNet, and vice versa. CIPRO have approved a direct link with UUNet but this needed to be signed off by the DTI's head of IT. As soon as this was done it would take approximately two weeks to set up the direct link.
2. Annual returns
Section 21 companies and annual returns
CIPRO confirmed that they were not yet ready to process section 21 company annual returns as they were giving priority to the annual returns of private companies, which provided revenue.
SIC codes
CIPRO stated that they would not consider a suggestion that the annual return system allow for the SIC code to be entered manually as it takes a long time for the codes to be accessed and inserted using the website look up facility. They needed to maintain data integrity.
3. Electronic lodgement of documents
CIPRO confirmed that CK1 and CK2 forms lodged electronically would not be processed until they had received a signed form.
It was confirmed that there had been no change regarding the fee policy for rejected CM7s and CM5s. There was a refund for the former but not for the latter.
4. Processing backlogs
CIPRO provided a report on how backlogs in the processing of various forms had been addressed. There were a number of reasons for the backlogs including the move to new premises, network problems, non functioning printers, the volume of private company de-registrations in May with the introduction of annual returns and the termination of contract staff.
The backlog project had achieved the following with the use of overtime:
• CK1 - backlog reduced from 17 000 forms to 6 000
• CK2 and 2A - from 12 000 to 6 500
• New companies from 1 229 to zero
• CM22s - 3 200 to 1 100
• CM26s - 636 to zero
• CM27A's - from 1 480 to 639
• CM29s - from 5 000 to 2 000
• CM31s - from 2 600 to zero
• De-registrations - from 2 700 to 475.
5. SARS/CIPRO link
CIPRO reported that a joint committee had been formed to address the ongoing problems with the transfer of information between SARS and CIPRO. It was stated that the problem did not relate to the link but to the incompatibility of the file formats of the data being transferred.
It was agreed that CIPRO must make SARS aware that the data on the CIPRO database could not be relied on as being completely accurate.
It was agreed that CIPRO would invite a representative from SAICA and from the CFA's to attend the next joint meeting.
6. Scanning of documents
CIPRO acknowledged that the scanning of documents was not going as planned and that this was resulting in delays in obtaining copies of documents.
A concern was raised that certain files could not be found making it impossible to obtain copies of documents. Such cases could be referred to Mr Francis Manickum fmanickum@cipro.gov.za.
7. Signing of CK2A forms by outgoing accounting officer.
A practitioner proposed that outgoing accounting officers should be required to sign the CK2A form when a new accounting officer is appointed. The reason for this would be to keep the outgoing accounting officer informed.
CIPRO agreed to consider this proposal and to report back at the next meeting.
8. Communication
CIPRO confirmed that they would use their website to communicate to customers. It was confirmed that there were no longer agents at CIPRO but only customers, i.e. there was only one process to register to be able to transact with CIPRO.
9. Banks
As practitioners were still experiencing problems with banks that will not accept certificates printed from the CIPRO website, it was agreed that CIPRO would again communicate this matter to the Banking Council.
10. Processing errors
Examples of numerous processing errors were noted. CIPRO stated that the number of such errors would reduce once e-lodgement was fully in place. Quality control procedures were also being put in place.
11. FICA requirements
It was noted that Practitioners have been inundated with requests to provide banks, in terms of the FICA Act, with paper copies of Memo & Articles, CM22s, CM29s etc. This is taking up a large amount of time and resources that seems to be unnecessary. It was agreed that a representative from the FIC would be invited to attend a meeting with the Banking Council to ensure that the certificates produced from the CIPRO website should suffice.
12. Decentralisation
CIPRO stated that they were going ahead with the decentralisation programme in terms of which members of the public and customers could interact with CIPRO at local Post Offices.
13. Co-operatives
The head of the new co-operatives section at CIPRO stated that the Co-operatives Bill was on the verge of being enacted and should be in place by the end of September 2005.
14. Call centre
It was reported that the call centre, which was receiving about 55 000 calls per month, was experiencing problems with regard to the loss of experienced staff, the necessity to train new staff members and problems with the speed of the access to the IT systems.
15. Next meeting
It was agreed that the next meeting would be held on Thursday 15 September 2005.
Prepared by: SAICA
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